


The Hero and the Farmhand

by ghibli22



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Breath of Wild Au, First Meetings, Gen, M/M, Side Quests, questionable battle tactics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22151491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghibli22/pseuds/ghibli22
Summary: Kamio Akira wasn't going to be a farmhand forever.
Relationships: Kamio Akira/Tachibana Kippei
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	The Hero and the Farmhand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [terundoru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/terundoru/gifts).



> This is for the lovely terundoru, who was incredibly patient while I put this all together. So glad I could finally deliver on your boys for you.

He wasn’t going to be a farm hand forever.

At least that’s what Akira told himself every morning when he woke up to sun streaming in through his window and the sound of cows mooing outside. Hateno Village was a picture of peace and his mother said he shouldn’t complain when they had it so good. But even though he knew it was dangerous even just beyond the village gates, he couldn’t help gazing out at the mountains and wishing for more. A different life.

Of course, that huge tower bursting from the ground a few months ago hadn’t helped any. Akira had even snuck away one day when he was supposed to be doing deliveries to get a closer look. Well, as close a look as he could get with a horde of bokoblins camped around the base. He might have risked it if it hadn’t been for the moblin that lumbered up a few minutes later. If there was one thing he was known for in Hateno it was his speed, but he wasn’t about to risk an encounter like that. 

But he wasn’t going to be a farm hand forever. 

“I’m not going to be a farmhand forever,” he says as he sets a crate full of milk bottles on the reception desk at Hateno’s only inn. From behind it Shinji, his best and closest friend in town, gives Akira a long-weary stare. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that, and they both knew it wouldn’t be the last. 

“I’m telling you, someday I’m going to leave this town,” Akira continues. He mimes holding a sword while Shinji watches him. “I’ve been practicing my swordplay. I’m getting pretty good!”

“Have you practiced with anything other than a stick?”

“No, but-”

“Have you actually tried to fight something other than a tree stump?”

“Hey!”

Akira scowls at him as Shinji hefts a big sigh and looks out the window. “It’s not like this place is so bad,” Shinji mumbles into his hand, “Even if it is boring. And too many people pay attention to me. People keep asking me what I want, I don’t want anything. Even that adventurer earlier-”

“Adventurer?!”

Swinging around Akira slams his hand on the desk. Shinji doesn't flinch but the milk bottles rattle in their crate. “When was there an adventurer here? What did he look like?!”

Shiji shrugs. “He came in late last night, left early this morning. I only knew he was an adventurer because he had a sword. No one around here has a sword like that. None of the traveling merchants carry swords like that.”

“Wha…” If there was an adventurer here, maybe he would finally have someone to train him. Maybe he could finally get out of this village! “What did you tell him? Where did he go?”

Shinji levels an ice cold stare at him. The kind that said he knew exactly what Akira was planning, but also knew he couldn’t stop him, “You’re going to make a fool of yourself, Kamio.”

Akira shakes his head, “And if I do, you can mock me all you want about it later. Where did he go?”

* * *

Akira finds him in the fields just outside Hateno. For whatever reason there weren’t as many bokoblins lurking around in the underbrush, so it was easy for him to crouch behind a tree to watch. Like him the other man was crouched low in the grass. It was hard to get a good look at him like this. But he was more than able to see what he was up to.

_The first time someone like him shows up and Shinji has him chasing **grasshoppers**!_

Akira huffs to himself, blowing some hair out of his eyes. Maybe this guy wasn’t such a big deal after all, if he spent his days bug hunting. 

He keeps watching until his leg starts to cramp from holding his position for so long. Maybe he was stupid to get his hopes up. Just because some stranger wandered in with a sword at his side didn’t mean he was some hero. With a heavy sigh, he starts moving back towards home. 

Akira yelps as his leg gives out from under him, the cramp catching him off balance and sending him falling back to the ground. Nothing injured but his dignity, he looked up to see if he’d been noticed. 

He was met with the tip of a long, silver blade.

Whatever was left of his dignity vanished in a flash as he shrieked, scooting back across the grass. When the sword didn’t run him through, Akira forced his gaze upward. 

The man at the other end of the blade looked back at him with hard, intense eyes under a shaggy mop of black hair. Only moments ago this man had been crouched in the grass chasing grasshoppers like a kid, but now he stood with the posture of a warrior. Akira swallowed around a mouth that was suddenly bone dry. Given the choice, he might have rather faced down a moblin after all. 

Neither of them moved an inch, each just staring and waiting. Eventually, the other man is the one to break the silence, “Why are you following me? Are you Yiga?”

Akira shook his head in a hurry. He had no idea who or what this yiga was, but he didn’t want to be whatever it was that made him so angry, “N-no, I’m from the village! I didn’t mean -- I was just curious?”

The excuse sounded weak even to his ears. But after another moment of silence the sword was sheathed once more and a hand was offered in its place.

“I’m sorry,” he said when Akira hesitated, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I wasn’t scared,” Akira replied too quickly, taking the other man’s hand. He gasped lightly as he was pulled to his feet with more strength than he expected. “I mean you surprised me, but I wasn’t _scared_.”

“Of course.”

Akira looks away as the man smiles at him, hastily brushing the dirt off his pants. Some first impression this was. “What’s uh… what’s someone like you doing in a place like Hateno village anyway?”

“Um,” he pauses as if he didn’t quite know what the answer was either, “This and that, I suppose. And also…”

Turning a bit, he gestures at the massive tower that had been plaguing Akira’s curiosity for months. “I’m here to investigate that.”

“That tower?!” 

Akira tries to maintain his composure and fails, miserably. “I can take you there! I know the way, I go out there all the time!”

Not exactly all the time, but anything to make a better second impression. The adventurer laughs. There’s no malice behind it, but Akira still feels like he’s being looked down on a bit. 

“It is a giant tower sticking up from the ground. I think I could find it without directions?” 

“Look,” Akira says, pointing an accusatory finger at him, “I may just be a farm hand but that doesn’t mean I don’t know a thing or two! The road on the way is just teeming with bokoblin camps. And I don’t care how good you are with a sword, you’d have to be crazy to decide to go through them instead of being guided around.”

He regrets the farm hand comment, but he hasn’t been told off immediately so he counts that as a victory. But after a moment of consideration the other man takes his hand, and shakes it firmly, “Tachibana Kippei.”

A smile spreads across Akira’s face, “Kamio Akira.”

“Well Kamio Akira, farm hand at Hateno Village,” Tachibana says as he releases his hand and rests it back on the hilt of his sword, “lead the way.”

As they stomp their way out of the field and up back to the main road Akira looks back at him with a smug smile, “This isn’t the only thing I know, by the way.”

“Oh? What else do you know?”

“Shinji hates grasshoppers.”

* * *

“Alright, now this is where it gets difficult,” Akira whispers as the two of them crawl slowly over a rock to peek at the bokoblin camp below. Same as last time there were a few huddled around a campfire, and a moblin eating what looked like a large piece of a deer, “I don’t know how we get passed the--”

_THWIP_

Before he can finish speaking there’s an arrow in the middle of one of the bokoblin’s heads. It crumples to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut before bursting into black smoke. Akira’s eyes go wide and he whips around just in time to see Tachibana take a running leap off the rock, sword drawn. He slams the blade straight through another bokoblin and it too turns to smoke before his eyes.

By this point the remaining bokoblin and moblin have taken notice. Akira clambers to his feet as the moblin lifts a wooden club that’s almost as big as he is tall. “Watch out!”

Moving faster than his eyes can comprehend Tachibana raises his shield and takes the brunt of the hit without even flinching. The moblin roars, saliva flying from its mouth and it’s eyes glowing red. But Akira doesn’t have time to watch any longer than a moment. Now that he’s made a spectacle of himself the last bokoblin starts to charge with a club of its own. 

Akira feels his heart leap into his throat. A real bokoblin was a lot more intimidating than a tree stump. But he couldn’t count on Tachibana for help with that moblin around.

“Dammit…!” Akira turns his back and runs back to the tree line. There had to be a branch here, or something he could use as a weapon. If he’d been smarter, he would have brought something with him to defend himself. 

Darting around a few tree trunks he plucks a fallen branch from the forest floor, shaking it free of leaves before turning on his heel. The bokoblin had fallen back a bit, giving him time to at least get into the stance he’d been practicing. With a yell he brings the branch down just as the bokoblin swings with its club. There’s enough force behind him that it flies from the monster’s hand, but the branch snaps cleanly in two. Trying not to let panic set in again, Akira discards what’s left of his stick and makes a dash for the club instead. Wrapping his hand around the dirty handle, he twists and swings it back--

The wood connects with the bokoblin’s face just as an arrow lodges in the back of its head. The pointed tip pierces out through an eye socket but Akira only has a second to be disgusted before it flies off to the side from the force of his hit and puffs into black smoke. When it clears, Tachibana stands above him with a smile on his face as he stashes his bow. The moblin is nowhere in sight. 

“Kamio.” He walks closer, and stands with a hand resting on his hip. “That was impressive. I haven’t met anyone else willing to face down a bokoblin like that, let alone unarmed.”

Akira felt his cheeks grow warm. He pushed his hair back awkwardly, although it just fell in his face again anyway. “Well it’s like I said, isn’t it? You’d have to be crazy not to avoid them when you can.”

“I think I’ll agree with you on this one.”

He looks up at the tower, and Akira follows his gaze. Now that the bokoblins and moblin are dealt with, it suddenly feels so much more real than it had before. Had it always been this tall?

“What even is this thing…” Akira mutters to himself as they start to walk towards it. As they make their way through the now empty camp he kicks at an old rotten barrel and watches it roll towards an abandoned spear.

“You don’t have any theories?” Tachibana asks.

He shakes his head, “I don’t even know where to begin! Everyone is too scared to even talk about it. It’s been months already, you think someone would--”

“What?”

Akira jumps as Tachibana stops suddenly, turning to look at him. His eyes are wide and unreadable, and Akira’s gaze darts quickly between them. “I… what?”

“How long has it been since the tower first appeared?” 

Tachibana’s voice is low, his words careful and deliberate. Whatever this look is it’s almost scarier than when Tachibana has his sword pointed at his throat.

“I’m not sure,” he answers carefully, “It’s been three months, at least. Maybe four?”

Tachibana takes a deep breath, then turns and keeps walking without another word. Akira falls into step behind him. “You know something about these things, don’t you?”

“It’s not important,” he replies. Finally getting to the base, he sets his hand on the latticed siding and grins back at Akira. “Ready to get to the top of this thing?”

Akira crosses his arms over his chest, looking up. Now it felt even taller. With a grimace he looks back at Tachibana, “Yeah, maybe when cows fly. Somehow I don’t think this is going to work out so well.”

Tachibana looks lost in thought for a second. Then with a nod he reaches into his satchel and pulls out a small bottle filled with shimmering green liquid, “I think I’ve got just the thing.”

* * *

Needless to say the climb is a lot easier and faster than he was expecting. But now his entire body felt like a lead weight.

Laying on his back, limbs splayed out like a scarecrow, Akira attempts to catch his breath. Tachibana, much to his annoyance, doesn’t look tired at all. He’s sure he’s just humoring him by sitting next to him. 

“Wha- what the _hell_ … was in that _bottle_?!”

Tachibana laughs, taking an apple from his bag and handing it over, “Trust me, you don’t want to know. Eat this and you’ll feel better.”

Akira sits up slowly, biting into the red skin of the fruit as he takes a look around. It’s less impressive than he’d hoped it would be after all the time he spent wondering. All that stood on the platform was some kind of podium and a strange, teardrop-like protrusion from the ceiling. Other than that it was barren. 

“I can’t believe this is it,” he mumbles through a mouthful of apple. “I don’t even know what this is. I’m more confused, actually.”

“Maybe some things aren’t meant to be understood?”

Akira watches Tachibana get to his feet, his equipment rattling as he rises. His rough, scar-covered hand goes to his hip where the strange slate is. Akira doesn’t say anything as he pulls it loose and turns it in his hand as he steps up to the podium. 

“Yeah, maybe some things aren’t,” Akira says, “But I get the feeling that you understand this.”

Tachibana turns at him and smiles. And Akira would swear on his life that he can see an eternity in those eyes. Something old, and something sad he can’t really explain. If he’s not careful, Akira thinks he could get lost in an intense gaze like that. 

“Well. You might be right about that,” Tachibana says. And then he drops the slate into the pillar. 

Akira gasps as the whole tower shakes. Clambering up to his feet his eyes go wide as sparks of blue light fly around them. It’s not unlike the strange blue flame that powers the furnace at the top of the hill, but when Akira reaches out he feels no heat. All of a sudden every scrap of light rushes to the center of the tower and vanishes into the ceiling. Akira is still standing there with his mouth agape as Tachibana pulls his slate from the stone. 

“What… what the hell was _that_? What the hell are _you_?!” Akira exclaims. He gestures at the tower around them, “You’re all connected to this, aren’t you?”

Tachibana smiles at him again, and once more Akira can see the sadness in his eyes, “It’s a long story. Or at least, it might be.”

Akira deflates a little, brushing his bangs back from his face. Tachibana doesn’t say anything else as he walks over to one of the tower supports, leaning against it as he takes in the view. Akira hesitates a second, then walks over to join him.

“Oh… wow.”

The sun had started to set while they’d made their climb. Now it hung low in the sky, casting long shadows and warm orange light through Hateno Valley. In the distance he could make out the twin silhouettes of the Dueling Peaks. In the past they’d always seemed so far away. But from up here Akira felt he could almost reach out and touch them. 

He glances at Tachibana. The other man’s face is similarly colored by the sunset, setting those eyes afire with it. But while the view is incredible, to Akira is seems like he isn’t looking at it at all. Somehow it feels like he’s looking even farther. 

“Look,” Akira starts with a sigh, “I get it if you don’t want to tell me. I know I’m just a farm boy from the village, and you’ve already done more than enough—”

“Just a farm boy?” 

Tachibana turns from wherever he was looking to look at him instead. Akira feels his face grow a little red again at the intensity of the scrutiny. “Kamio, the last thing I would call you is ‘just a farm boy’. Not just anyone would have faced those bokoblins head on. Not just anyone would have the sense to fight like you did down there. And not just anyone would have been crazy enough to climb this tower with me.”

He finishes with a raised brow and a grin, and Akira has to look away to hide the face-splitting smile that’s taken over his own face. “Yeah, well, you’re not the first one to call me crazy.”

Akira jumps as a hand lands on his shoulder. “I don’t think you’re crazy, Kamio.” 

He turns his head to meet Tachibana’s eyes once more. There’s nothing in his face that says he’s joking. “Then… you would be the first. In that case.”

There’s a quiet moment between them that stretches on almost long enough to make it awkward. But then they both start to smile, slowly at first, until they were both grinning like a pair of fools. And maybe they were, standing there at the top of this mysterious tower, barely having known each other a day, but Akira felt with complete certainty that he could do this for the rest of his life. 

“I… Tachibana—”

Before he can get the words out there’s a bright flash in the sky. Akira gasps and they both whirl around to watch a sparkling star speed across the horizon. It lands with another flash in the distance, among the hills of the Lanayru Heights. 

They stand in stunned silence for a moment. 

“Kamio—”

“Tachibana—”

Akira shakes his head quickly. “You first.”

Tachibana leans in closer, barely contained excitement trapped in his eyes. “Kamio this may sound presumptuous, but would you like to come with me?”

“Yes!” His response is almost too fast. His heartbeat pounds in his ears. “I was going to ask, but I didn’t want—”

“It might be dangerous,” Tachibana interrupts.

“I don’t care. I climbed this entire freaking tower with you, I feel like I can take on anything!”

Akira reaches out before he can think to hesitate, clapping his hand to Tachibana’s shoulder. “I think I’ll probably need a sword, though.”

Tachibana laughs. Akira can feel the vibrations of it through his whole body, and wonders if the whole valley can hear it too. 

“I think that can be arranged,” he finally responds. They both look out again to the Lanayru cliffs where they could still see a faint glow. 

“Let’s go get our shooting star.”


End file.
